Serializing object with virtual properties using another lighter object

Question

I have got a class which has many virtual properties lazy loaded

public class TestPlan
{
    public virtual ICollection<Test> Test { get; set; }
    public virtual Commercial Commercial { get; set; }
    ...
}

and this class has to be serialized later in the program. The thing is, as those properties are virtual I've got an error (circular reference) everytime I try to serialize it. Now here is my question:

My boss told me to use what he calls View Object which is the same object but without the unused properties. What do you think of this? Should I set those unused properties to null or something?

Background:

The serialized object is meant to be used in an infragistics grid (a nice array). I've already tried using the [ScriptIgnore] attribute on my virtuals but it didn't worked.

I also tried retrieving my TestPlans as database.TestPlans.AsNoTracking().ToList() but got an error (When an object is returned with a NoTracking merge option, Load can only be called when the EntityCollection or EntityReference does not contain objects.)

Thanks in advance

This kind of object could be called a ViewModel or a DTO, depending on its usage. — MattDavey

sanosdole sanosdole · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-30T10:13:00

If your Boss means a DataTransferObject with View Object he seems to be going in the right direction. This is sometimes also called a ViewModel object in ASP. This is just a plain POCO representing a flattened Version of your Model Objects (some use AutoMapper for the flattening)

You should not modify your model objects but instead create a new object (possibly flattened) for the purpose of serialization. This object has no behaviour just data and represents the contract for serialization.

I cannot see a circular reference from your example code, but if you want i may give you an unrelated code example that shows how to resolve circular references by flattening. (Difficult to do without knowing the model)

Serializing object with virtual properties using another lighter object

1 Answers